Alcohol Can Boost Aging Bone Health

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Later in life, drinking one to two alcoholic drinks daily may
curb bone loss -- so much so that just a two-week break from
alcohol hastened bone decline in women in a new study.

Researchers looked at the effects of
moderate alcohol consumption on "bone turnover," or the
replacing of old bone cells with new ones, in healthy
post-menopausal women. After menopause, women's production of new
bone cells slows, but the rate of shedding old cells does not
slow as much. In other words, the "out with the old" outpaces the
"in with the new," leading to a porous skeleton that easily
fractures.

But past studies have shown that women who drink moderately (one
or two alcoholic beverages per day) have higher bone density than
non-drinkers or heavy drinkers. Now, the new study suggests why:
Alcohol appears to reduce bone loss in middle-age women by
suppressing the rate at which their bones shed old cells.

In line with previously observed trends, the women in the study
who drank more alcohol (up to two drinks per day) had denser hip
bones than those who drank less (as little as half a drink per
day).

More tellingly, blood tests showed that abstaining from drinking
for just two weeks triggered an acceleration of bone turnover in
all the women. After a 14-day alcohol
holiday, the women's blood contained heightened levels of a
molecule that gets released during bone turnover. And less than a
day after the women resumed their normal drinking, blood levels
of that molecule dropped again.

"After less than 24 hours, to see such a measurable effect was
really unexpected," said study researcher Urszula Iwaniec,
associate professor in the College of Public Health and Human
Sciences at Oregon State University.

It is yet to be determined whether alcohol also benefits younger
drinkers' bones. In one past study, 20- to 47-year-old women
experienced a drop in the marker of bone turnover after they
drank two beers, but "longer-duration studies are required before
any conclusions can be made regarding the beneficial or
detrimental effects of moderate alcohol on bone health on younger
individuals," Iwaniec told Life's Little Mysteries.

She added that it is possible alcohol "may be detrimental to the
growing skeleton, but have beneficial effects on the aging
skeleton."

Drinking too much alcohol (at any age) undeniably causes health
problems, the researchers noted, but the new findings cast one
more vote in favor of moderate alcohol consumption as part of a
healthy diet in middle age. Past studies have linked moderate
drinking with lower
risk of cardiovascular disease,
lower risk of stroke in women and lower mortality
in general.